We can imagine a very large number of possible outcomes that could have resulted from the conditions our Universe was born with. The fact that all 10⁹⁰ particles contained within our Universe unfolded with the interactions they experienced and the outcomes that they arrived at over the past 13.8 billion years led to all the intricacies of our experiences, including our very existence. It is possible, if there were enough chances, that this could occur many times, leading to a scenario that we think of as “infinite parallel Universes” to contain all possible outcomes, including the roads our Universe didn’t travel, but we can only observe the one Universe we have. (JAIME SALCIDO/SIMULATIONS BY THE EAGLE COLLABORATION)

Ask Ethan: Have We Finally Found Evidence For A Parallel Universe?

There’s some amazing science happening at the South Pole, but some very grandiose claims being made. What’s actually going on?

For some of us, the idea of parallel Universes spark our wildest dreams. If there are other Universes where certain events had different outcomes — where just one crucial decision went a different way — perhaps there could be some way to access them. Perhaps particles, fields, or even people could be transported from one to the other, enabling us to live in a Universe that’s better, in some ways, than our own. These ideas have a foothold in theoretical physics as well, from the myriad of possible outcomes from quantum mechanics as well as ideas of the multiverse. But do they have anything to do with observable, measurable reality? Recently, a claim has surfaced asserting that we’ve found evidence for parallel Universes, and Jordan Colby Cox wants to know what it means, asking:

There is an article floating around that claims that physicists in Antarctica have found evidence for a parallel universe. I find this highly unlikely, but I wanted to be sure by asking you to address the veracity of the story.